US Senate Confirms Scott Gottlieb as Next FDA Commissioner

The US Senate has confirmed the nomination of Scott Gottlieb, MD, as the next Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration in a yes-no vote of 57 to 42, voting to confirm. He was officially sworn in as FDA Commissioner on May 11, 2017,

Dr. Gottlieb is returning to the agency where he served as Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs and also served as senior advisor to the FDA Commissioner. He also worked on implementation of the Medicare drug benefit as a senior advisor to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he supported policy work on quality improvement and the agency’s coverage process, particularly as it related to new medical technologies. In 2013, Dr. Gottlieb was appointed by the US Senate to serve on the Federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee, which advises the Department of Health and Human Services on healthcare information technology.

Dr. Gottlieb is a physician, was a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a clinical assistant professor at the New York University School of Medicine in Manhattan, where he also practiced medicine as a hospitalist physician, and was a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, a Chevy Chase, Maryland-headquartered venture capital firm.

Dr. Gottlieb succeeds Robert Califf, MD, the former FDA Commissioner who formally stepped down before the Trump administration took office. Stephen Ostroff, MD, has been serving as Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs on an interim basis.